Co-founder and managing director of Radio Hauraki in the 1960s and early 1970s, Gapes became Hello Sailor’s manager in 1977, and began an era of live, local original rock at the Gluepot hotel in Ponsonby, Auckland. He took Hello Sailor to Los Angeles in 1978 hoping to get them an international profile and a recording contract, but stretched financial resources led the band to return to New Zealand in early 1979.